


From the one that stayed

by fadaravena



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene, Retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23235334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadaravena/pseuds/fadaravena
Summary: Rhys finds himself having trouble moving on from past events. Fiona and Jack are there to remind him of the present.(Takes place during the roadtrip of the third opening.)
Relationships: Fiona & Rhys (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands), Rhys/Hugo Vasquez
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	From the one that stayed

**Author's Note:**

> A warning: English is not my first language and the work had not been beta'd, so I'm sorry in advance for any mistakes (if you find any, please, let me know.)
> 
> This idea occured to me when I started to think about how Rhys would react to Vasquez death if they had dated and broken up before the events of the game, and although this is a very self-indulgent fic, I hope it could be an enjoyable read.

The engines were ignited making a low, but insisted rumble, — almost like the sound of drums used in a post mortem ritual of a forgotten civilization, — and with that the caravan was set into motion, leaving the old Atlas facility behind.

Traces of what happened in there, however, remained in the minds of the travelers, creating an uncomfortable silence amongst them during the first night, and for one particular traveler, for the most part of the following days.

It wasn't unusual to hear a quiet whisper of chit chat here and there, small talks concerning the next step on their journey, or some trivial matter. Usually between the sisters, Loader Bot and Gortys, or Vaughn starting a very awkward conversation with Rhys — even though he was the one closer to him.

However, it was all surrounded by that same heavy atmosphere.

Rhys himself tried to brush it all off with a half hearted smile or a joke poorly told and dismiss whatever was currently eating his heart out, he could deal with it on his own, but as the next day progressed, he became more and more reserved.

Everyone knew what was going on with him, but no one dared to bring the subject up.

One day, the caravan made a stop so that people could stretch their legs and relax a little bit from their roadtrip. They were in the middle of an arid land, with the sun high up in the sky casting its rays in blurry intensities of orange and red, they had chosen a spot where the canyons thankfully blocked the lights and created a less cruel thermal sensation.

At first, Rhys had joined Sasha, Fiona and Vaughn in their conversation but not so long after something seemed to catch his attention, he excused himself saying he would be looking out for any danger, probably forgetting that LB and Gortys were assigned to said duty.

The trio accompanied him with side glances until they saw him finding a place on top of a flattened rock above a hill. That could have been interpreted exactly like he said, scanning the area for danger, but the way he sat, hugging his legs told a different story to Fiona.

"Hey, Sash, Vaughn," Fiona said, "could you guys do me a big favor and go help our vault hunter guest with, uh," she peeked through the window of the caravan and spotted Athena holding a spatula in one hand and a knife in the other, apparently trying to figure out how to make them dinner, or maybe practicing a very weird self-defense technique, maybe both, "with whatever she is needing help right now? I have some matters to attend to that require a certain level of discretion."

"Sure." Sasha said.

"Fine to me." Vaughn followed.

They looked at each other, then to the figure alone in the distance, nodding in mutual agreement they went inside the caravan.

Rhys was gazing at the horizon, he couldn't stop the events from playing again and again in front of him as if they were happening now, a daydream in a loop.

He tried so many times, but it kept getting in his way. He kept finding the old facility with Vaughn, everytime he talked to him, he kept seeing them being held captived by August, whatever he saw Sasha, and when he was alone, lost in thoughts, he kept getting back to the last time he heard, felt, Vasquez.

A shiver ran down his spine.

Vasquez was pointing a gun at him while leading him through the corridor.

"You know I didn't want to be doing this, Rhys, I was forced to." Vasquez said nudging him with the gun to keep moving. "No hard feelings, things could have been different between us."

'They still can' was left hanging in the air.

"Yeah, you're right, could have been. Look, Vasquez, what's done, is done."

He felt a pang, a hard, cold surface hitting one side of his jaw.

"I don't like the tone you're using to talk to me, Rhys."

Despite the words, as Rhys raised his head wiping a trickle of blood from his lips with the back of his hand, he met Hugo's gaze and what he saw reflected on those eyes was a regret so profound he couldn't have believed it was capable of expressing.

It only lasted for a second, the next moment he was starting a long leisure on how everything he did was for Rhys' benefit, a lesson on how to succeed in life, but Rhys knew better. That same attitude led to him being put aside, to backstabbing, and finally to him deciding to break up with Hugo.

Remonting back to the start of their relationship, Rhys realized it wasn't an easy decision to make, and as Hugo went on and on about every action he took having Rhys' best interest in mind, he began to recall some of them, and to his surprise, the ones that first came to his mind were the memories he cherished the most: the nights spent helping Rhys finish a code, or sharing project ideas, nights that usually ended with a passionate make out in the office when they were the only two remaining.

The casual dates around the malls in Helios, when Rhys found his love for ice cream (and licking ice cream off of adorable beards and even more adorable reactions of said beard owner); the evenings watching trash movies in the echonet, Hugo always complained and ended up putting an overly dramatic soap opera in the middle of the movie, but Rhys didn't care what they watched, as long as a promise of cuddling and hot make out session were still there.

Rhys' heart ached, his chest burned, he was missing him.

But, as soon as the epiphany striked him, he found they were at the end of the corridor. Rhys gulped, his hands trembling, slowly, he turned to Hugo. Before all be damned, before giving that last step towards the platform, sensing this was his last chance of a goodbye, Rhys took Hugo's face in his palm and closed the space between them until their lips were touching.

The kiss didn't last long before he parted, Hugo had not had a chance to react, and what was left to Rhys was a cold sensation on his lips, as if he just kissed a bad omen.

And then, as to emphasize that, the last nail in the coffin, so to speak, he saw a force field separating them.

Suddenly, Rhys started, waking up from his reverie to the feeling of someone touching his shoulder, he looked to his side and found Fiona sitting right next to him, a sympathetic look on her face.

"I thought you'd be joining Loader Bot and Gortys." She said.

"I like it here, it got a pretty nice view."

Fiona let out a chuckle.

"Right, I guess you hyperions are not used to endless nothings of sand and a temperature of 104°F."

"You could say so."

"Listen, I know it got pretty bad back there, and I don't know how you did all of that, but we are all fine now, we managed to get out of a tight spot in one piece, and we are going to get Gortys' upgrade, find that vault and maybe start a new life, a better life. For all of us."

With an abrupt movement, Rhys turned his head and all his body to face her. A defiant look on his semblance that was until then void of any strong emotion.

"How can you be so sure of that? How can I keep trusting someone that since the beginning lied to me? Uh?"

Fiona returned the gesture, but instead, showing determination.

"You're right. I can't be trusted, but neither can you. However, we will need all our efforts combined to fix this mess we created, and for that to be done, we need to be focused on the mission. We need to be focused on the present, as hard as it is."

She glared right into his eyes and added:

"You're not the only one who lost someone dear."

And with that she started to get up, not leaving until Rhys did the same.

X x X

They were passing by a certain part of the land famous for being covered in ice and snow for a full cycle, when the engine started making a funny noise. Not soon after, the vehicle died.

With a frustrated groan, Sasha left the driver's seat, hands on her hips, she directed her attention to the group.

"Anyone come with me, see what happened? Any volunteers?" Sasha said. "No one?"

"Go ask Rhys," Fiona said "I think he's still up there." She nodded her head in indication.

"Again? You know the next turn in the driving seat is his, right?"

Fiona just shrugged, but gave her sister a very suggestive look that said: you know what to do.

"Fine." With another exasperated sigh, she made her way to the stairs leading to the rooftop.

Exactly like Fiona said, there he was, sleeping in a fetal position with his head in the rail and drool turned ice all over it.

For all that Sasha knew, he could be dead, but just as a precaution, she kicked the rail with force enough to break the ice and tingle his head.

Rhys jumped startled, he immediately looked around him, a bit disoriented, until he saw Sasha, who was looking at him far from amused.

"We arrived?" He said, holding his head to make the dizziness stop.

"No. The caravan died. I need you to help me fix it."

"Ah, right. Okay, gimme a sec, I'd be right behind you."

Rhys was still looking around as if they landed yet in another planet, he didn't know Pandora could have all these different biomes. It was all beautiful, maybe Vaughn was right.

"So, what happened exactly?"

Sasha was laid down on her back, under the vehicle, her goggles on, unfixing a panel.

"I still don't know, that's what we are going to find out. Would you give me that screwdriver there?" She nodded her head in the direction of the tool box.

Rhys handed her the tool.

"I didn't know it snowed here."

"It's not a common thing. I've heard it only snow around these parts, can you get down here and help me with the wires?"

Rhys crouched next to her.

Working like this, side by side, disconnecting wires, reconnecting new ones, testing to see if it worked as they intended it to. In the end, their project of months was a success, but his name was nowhere to be found in the final and approved prototype.

He confronted Hugo about it as soon as he found out. He was on the phone with someone, a conference call, a personal call, whatever that was, it was put on hold when Rhys barged into the office.

Hugo approached him to give him a kiss, but Rhys put some distance between them holding a hand up. Hugo was visibly shocked.

'What? What was that for, dear?'

'Oh, don't start with the sweet talk, explain to me, Vasquez' he stressed the name 'why only your name was credited for the prototype?'

'I beg your pardon? I thought our deal was I help you get the bonus and we both climb the corporate ladder together'

'That wasn't the deal! You used me! And I trusted you, I trusted you… I conceived that project, you know that, better than anyone who signed this'

'Our work! It was our work, Strongfork!'

Ignoring him, Rhys closed the distance between them and shoved the blueprints to his chest, crumpling and letting it fall to the ground, right next to Vasquez' shoes.

'It's over.' He said, and made his way to the exit.

Rhys didn't notice at first a blue light materializing above him, right next to his ear, he was still holding some other tool Sasha asked him to return to the box. He had not noticed he didn't do that either.

"Why the long face, princess? 

Jack asked a mix of concerned and amused.

"Oh my god, you're still thinking about that asshole? What was his name again?

Rhys put the tool aside and turned to Sasha.

"Hey, Sasha, I, uh, got a problem here."

"Seriously? Let me see." She moved to his side, blocking his vision to take a better look at the machinery, her chest leaning on his arm.

"No, not that, a problem of a different nature." He stuttered and to better illustrate his point, he nodded to his lower half. It didn't take long for Sasha to get what he was referring to.

"Oh, gross. Okay, you go deal with that as I finish up here."

"Thank you, Sasha, you're the best."

"Yeah, yeah. But be back soon or we'll leave you here to freeze."

He slided out from under the vehicle and started walking to a more secluded area all the while listening to a laughing Jack pointing out how utterly funny and pathetic his idea for an excuse was; as soon as his fit died out, Rhys began questioning him on what exactly he wanted.

"What I want is for you to realize how stupid, no, no, let me rephrased it, completely unnecessary of you to still remember that guy. You were the one who dumped him, you said so yourself. It's over, finnit, best decision of your life, well, second best decision, right before you putting me inside of that brain of yours, but you get the gist."

Rhys gave him a judgmental look, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips firmly pressed together.

"Easy for you to say..." He paused. "Have you ever loved anyone in your life, Jack? Have you ever had to witness them getting brutally murdered right in front of your eyes?"

His voice faltered. For a while, Jack said nothing.

"Yeah, he was a complete asshole, with that smug grin and boastful attitude, thinking he was that great, using my skills and influence in the department for his own benefit. He saw that coming, I know, and yet…"

His eyes landed on an object not so far away from them. It looked like some sort of rakk's nest that fell from a mountain and somehow landed there, miles away from its original place. Little piles of snow filled the spots where the eggs should've been, as if something or someone took one at a time, and the snow sensing its absence decided to fill it.

"Hey, Rhysie, look at me." Jack said and Rhys did as he was told. "Forget him, you don't need to keep him in your mind and you know why? Because now you have me."

Rhys blinked a few times, astonished.

"Are you… Are you flirting with me?"

"What? Flirting with you?" Jack laughed. "Don't go setting your hopes high, princess. But let's say, for now, that there's a pretty big chance of that being true." His voice softened before rising up again. "Well, time for me to go. Don't forget to put your imaginary junk back in your pants." He said making a gesture towards said area. "Don't take a guy that long to empty his bladder." And with that the hologram was gone.

Rhys returned to the caravan with his cheeks still burning and a dumbfounded grin. He welcomed his turn in the driver's seat without complaining, even humming a happy tune during his time behind the wheel, where he couldn't show more enthusiasm and couldn't be more eager to arrive at their next destination.


End file.
